1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of cooking and, more particularly, to an arrangement for shielding an individual from direct contact with exposed, heated motor laminations of a fan motor preferably employed in connection with a downdraft cooktop.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Cooktops presently available in the marketplace are known to take various forms, incorporate a wide range of cooking surfaces, and utilize different heat sources including both gas and electric. Certain cooktop models are adapted to be directly mounted in a kitchen countertop or island. Often, such cooktops have associated therewith a downdraft feature wherein a fan is utilized to draw airborne cooking grease, odor and other byproducts through a surface grate into a plenum, direct the byproducts through an air filter and then expel the remaining, laden air from the kitchen to a specified outside location with the use of suitable ducting.
Typically, the air filter is arranged below the countertop surface upon which the cooktop is mounted in order to ease replacement thereof. Most often, the countertop is supported by cabinetry incorporating cabinet doors which enable access to an area below the cooktop where the plenum and filter are located. Although the downdraft fan can actually be located remote from the cooktop, the fan is most often also located directly below the cooktop. More particularly, the fan is encased within the plenum or another housing in order to protect a consumer from direct contact with the motor, as portions thereof can actually become quite hot when the downdraft system is activated for a significant period of time. In fact, there exist AGA/UL requirements that must be fully met in this regard in order to make a downdraft system commercially viable, at least in the United States.
Obviously, protecting the consumer is a paramount concern. However, encasing the downdraft fan in this manner is considered to have significant disadvantages. For instance, the overall encasement arrangement can be costly to both produce and assemble. That is, the housing must be designed for ease of access of the fan in case maintenance is required. However, the available space is limited. For these and other reasons, it is actually common to find that the overall housing is made up of a rather large number of parts. For instance, in one known prior art arrangement, the entire motor housing structure requires twenty (20) assembly pieces. In addition, encasing a fan motor in this manner can severely restrict heat dissipation. Certainly, considerations must be made to assure that these prior arrangements would not lead to an overheating problem.
With the above concerns in mind, it would be desirable to be able to minimize the number of assembly components associated with a downdraft system for a cooktop in order to reduce manufacturing costs. At the same time, there is a need to provide an efficient heat dissipating fan arrangement, while also incorporating sufficient heat shielding to protect a consumer from direct contact with fan motor laminations.
The present invention is directed to a heat shielding assembly for a vented cooking system. More specifically, a cooktop, arranged in a countertop, has associated therewith a downdraft venting system, including a fan for generating an air flow designed to remove air laden cooking byproducts from a cooking zone. In accordance with the invention, the fan is positioned so as to be accessible, such as from within cabinetry located directly below the cooktop, to a consumer and maintenance personnel. A motor of the fan is mounted outside of a plenum of an overall ducting arrangement for the downdraft system. In this sense, the motor is substantially, directly exposed upon opening of doors associated with the cabinetry. However, in order to prevent direct contact with laminations of the motor which will become heated during use, a shield, preferably in the form of a plastic sleeve, is provided to encircle a housing of the motor.